~~~

  Wyrmwood watched with great interest as a previously solid wall, split apart and opened inwards, just for a tiny version of his captors to walk in. The little thing was looking around with obvious amazement, its eyes seeming to sparkle every time it locked onto a different dragon.

  Its eyes went right past Wyrmwood, not noticing him. Which made sense, he was half buried and camouflaged again.

  Also, over the time he’d been trapped here, he had subtly been growing fungus, mushrooms and molds in his mud pit. The results had actually made him even harder to spot.

  Except for Gloriosa.

  The plant dragon seemed to like visiting Wyrmwood from her little patch of trees. When she’d learned Wyrmwood’s name, she’d been infatuated with the idea of coming up with her own. Three days later, she had proudly proclaimed into his mind that she was called Gloriosa.

  There was a very noticeable increase in power and control of her abilities after she’d named herself, it had intrigued Veronica more than it did Wyrmwood.

  Wyrmwood had shared his knowledge about dragons and names. It was all from his inherited knowledge, of course, but it was deeply ingrained as something of extreme importance.

  A dragon didn’t exactly gain power from a name. It would be more accurate to say that having a name puts weight on their existence. It made them more real, connected to the world. There were, however, two factors that could empower a dragon through naming them. That being; who named them and if their name related to their natural affinity.

  Usually, a dragon is named by their progenitor a few days after their hatching. Wyrmwood had also been a few days old, but he’d instinctively known already that no one would name him. Being so young and new to the world, however, had meant that he hadn’t noticed if he’d gotten any stronger after naming himself.

  Gloriosa was clear proof that there was a difference before and after. Even her empathy link had begun to sound closer to clear speech.

  Wyrmwood watched carefully as Gloriosa was the first to greet the small creature that had entered this giant cage. She looked happy to see it.

  “Hi! I remember you! You’re the stick-y one! Do you remember me? I’m Bixxy! What is this place? It’s so cool! I knew it was a big place in here, but it’s got lotsa stuff too! Why are there trees in here? How’d they get here? My favorite color is magenta!”

  The little thing prattled on excitedly. A seemingly endless tide of words spewing from its… her?-

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Yeah, that’s a she. Veronica confirmed.

  -Her mouth. Bixxy was happily dashing in random loops around the trees as Gloriosa happily followed her.

  “Can you show me around?”

  Gloriosa nodded, bending down to actually let the creature get onto her back! Wyrmwood shivered a bit as the sight stirred up the memory of that monkey-bird thing that had attacked him by jumping onto his back. He didn’t think he’d ever be letting another creature ride on his back like that.

  Wyrmwood was very unamused when the first place Gloriosa decided to show off was his mud pit. She’d made a beeline straight for him.

  Friend is here! Happy show off friend! Want friend and new friend be friends! Gloriosa said through her empathy link.

  Wyrmwood… didn’t hate that Gloriosa thought of him as a friend. He did, however, dislike the attention that was brought to him whenever she pranced right over.

  Shifting his long coils slightly in discomfort had the unintended effect of giving himself away to Bixxy as she ooohed and aaahed at him. With slight annoyance, he lifted his head fully from the muck for the first time in days.

  “Hello Glor-I-osa.” He greeted her. He could hear the telltale sound of a certain amphipter leaving the water behind him and felt like sighing. Well, my sneakily scouting a way out plan hasn’t been going well anyways. He had to finally admit to himself.

  Connecting with the locals is never a bad thing. Veronica said in his mind in a reciting tone.

  It's part of “How to Be a Good Ruler” by King Noreb Ellion. Veronica supplied.

  “Whooooa!!! You're really long! And you can talk!! I'm Bixxy! Why are you sleeping in the mud? I got scolded for trying to do that once! Why do your arms look weird? Are you Gloriosa’s friend? She said that’s her name now! She named herself! I wonder what I’d name myself if I could do that? Do you have a name?”

  Wyrmwood felt like he was getting a headache from Bixxy’s constant stream of words.

  “I’m Wyrmwood.” He replied simply.

  “Hi Wyrmwood! Can we be friends?!” She immediately asked with a big smile.

  “…okay.”

  Happiness and warmth radiated from Gloriosa as Bixxy went into another tirade of words that he didn’t even try to keep up with, instead turning to look at the sea amphiptere as it finally slid close enough to them to matter. It watched Wyrmwood warily out of the corner of its eyes, but was clearly focusing mostly on Gloriosa and Bixxy with curiosity.

  The sea amphiptere, like most of the other dragons, didn’t speak. Though Wyrmwood couldn’t tell if they really didn’t know how to, or if they just didn’t talk much like him.

  Apparently only now noticing how close it was, Gloriosa flared her branch-looking wings at it.

  Surprise! Where’d you come from?! Annoyance! Not your turn! Rivalry! My trees look better than yours!

  Trees? Wyrmwood looked over to the salty pond curiously. He didn’t see any trees around it. What trees was she talking about? Were there trees underwater? Did they grow there?

  Veronica was also unsure about that but they’d never actually looked under the water in their scouting. The amphipter was quite territorial and secretive about its pond. Only female dragons had been allowed near, because the amphipter turned out to be a male. Not that many dragons even walked by his pond, though.

  Bixxy, having held onto Gloriosa’s back with surprising ease, laughed as she also felt the feelings her current ride was giving off.

  “Hi Fishyscales! You still grow water plants right? Did you figure out how to grow the aqua daisies that Smith gave you? I didn’t tell anyone about them! Just like I promised!"

  The sea amphipter… Fishyscales… raised its head in a clearly proud gesture as Bixxy talked at it.

  Surely it didn’t choose its own name… right? Veronica questioned in disbelief.

  ~~~

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